Sunday, March 11, 2012

This
morning internationally-known author and speaker Christopher West spoke
on campus at Messiah College about Pope John Paul II's "theology of the
body." It was well-received. The students were grateful to hear a novel
and refreshing approach to human sexuality that affirms the goodness
and dignity of the human body, the human person, and human sexuality.
Later this afternoon I sat with another
priest, several diocesan staff, and 2 Ob/Gyn's as we recorded a
roundtable conversation about Catholic teaching on family planning and
how it is practiced in the medical setting. It's amazing how chemical
contraception has become the accepted standard of care despite its many
detrimental effects on the human body and its increase in cancer risk
(the World Health Organization classified oral contraceptives as a Class
I carginogen and, gosh, we don't hear about that from the secular media
or our federal government). Medicine and family planning don't have to
be degrading to women, reducing their bodies to sexual objects without
further meaning -- they can respect God's goodness in the human person
and respect the woman as a whole person, body and soul, in mature and
loving relationship with a man. As the "theology of the body" affirms,
our bodies -- male and female -- are not only biological, they are
theological, revealing the wonder of a loving Creator. Medicine, too,
is practiced best when it cooperates with the Creators' plan and doesn't
suppress it. So, I guess I sat around and talked about sex all day!